


you can always turn to me

by TheGlassFloor



Category: Original Work
Genre: BFFs, Best Friends, Bromance, Brotp, Close Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Suburban Gothic, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28018026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGlassFloor/pseuds/TheGlassFloor
Summary: "I've already had my memories taken away once, so they can't really be taken away again, so at least with me around…" Kirk reached out for Marvin's shoulder and squeezed it. "...you'll know there's at least one thing in your life you can count on."
Relationships: Marvin Mannix & Kirk Hunter, Original Male Character & Original Male Character





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place after _[The Magic Disappears](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27383797/chapters/66920968)_ , although I try to write my stories in a way that each one can stand on its own, without any need to have read any of the installments that came before it. Still, if you have any questions, anything I can clear up, or anything that needs more explanation, feel free to let me know in the comments.
> 
> And of course, thank you for reading.

It was a dark and quiet Friday night that found Marvin Mannix at home alone, sitting in front of the TV, flipping through the channels, not finding much of interest to watch. Every so often he'd reach into a crinkly bag of pretzels and take one out to slowly munch on. Night had gradually fallen during the time that had passed ever since he'd planted his behind on the couch, however long ago that had been, and by now the house was completely dark, other than the flickering glow that the television cast onto the walls and furniture of the living room. Marvin's parents were both working late, and there were no other lights on in the entire house.

A brief silence occurred between the end of one annoyingly blaring commercial and the beginning of another equally irksome one, and no sooner than the moment had passed did Marvin's eyes grow incredibly wide.

No. No, there was no way…

He reached for the remote and hit the mute button, plunging the house into complete silence. He strained to listen.

All he heard was his own heartbeat and the blood rushing through his ears.

He must have imagined it. There was no way he'd just heard what he thought he heard.

He was about to unmute the TV when he heard it again, more clearly this time.

Instead of bringing the volume back, he hit the power button instead--whether intentionally or not, he didn't know. Chills ran down his spine, having just added complete darkness to the complete silence, but it was just as well. Less for his eyes meant more for his ears, and he willed them to hear it again for a third time, but the silence was soon drowned out by his own ragged breathing. He took a deep breath and held it.

_You imagined it,_ he told himself, trying not the freak out. _There's just no way…_

Then he heard it again, faintly. The sound of a voice calling his name. A very distinct voice he'd heard many times before.

The backyard. It was coming from the backyard.

He leaped off the couch, taking care not to bump into the doorframe on his way to the kitchen, still not switching on any lights, but rather rummaging through one of the kitchen drawers for a flashlight, which he found, taking it with him out the back door into the cold night air.

A gust of wind blew, shaking the limbs and branches of one of the tall trees that stood out behind the Mannix house, with more of the trees in the wooded area beyond following suit until scarcely anything else could be heard. Marvin shivered, and he wasn't sure it was from the cold.

The wind died down, gradually reverting the outdoor space to relative silence once again, save for the sound of the voice faintly calling his name.

"Marvin…"

His grandfather's voice.

No. Not Grandpa Mark. Abey.

Marvin held the flashlight in front of him as though it were a weapon. He'd never switched it on. Maybe he was afraid of what he'd see.

"Abey…" he said, though it came out like a croak after not having used his voice to speak to anyone for the last few hours, not to mention all those salted pretzels he'd eaten. "Abey…?" he said more clearly this time.

He flipped the switch on the flashlight, thinking that maybe the next thing he'd see would be his pigeon friend perched up on one of the tree branches. He'd welcome Abey inside, listen intently to his explanation of where he'd been, of what had happened to the McMagicspell magic that had once been kept safely up in the attic, until one day it was mysteriously gone.

Or maybe he'd see something else. Something he wasn't prepared for. Whatever was responsible for taking the magic away could also impersonate his grandfather's/Abey's voice if it wanted to, couldn't it? To lure him out of the house, defenseless and alone? It could do anything.

As it turned out, he didn't see anything, because the flashlight didn't turn on. He flipped the switch back and forth, still nothing. The batteries were dead.

He was about to call Abey's name again, but the wind picked up again, and suddenly Marvin wanted very badly not to be standing out in the backyard alone in the dark anymore.

He ran into the house, slamming the door and locking it. He switched on the kitchen lights, then ran around to the other rooms of the house--the living room, the parlor, the foyer, the dining room, switching on the lights in all of those rooms as well.

Batteries… Where did they keep spare batteries?

Forget batteries. Marvin didn't want batteries. He wanted to not be alone right now, that's what he wanted.

His parents wouldn't be home for a couple more hours at least. It wasn't easy getting ahold of his dad while he was on duty, and he knew Friday night was one of the busiest nights of the week for his mom where she worked. Getting somebody else to cover for her so she could leave early was easier said than done. Then again, if it was an emergency…

Maybe he was being silly.

There was one other person he could call. He lifted the kitchen phone off its hook and began dialing Kirk's number--only to realize he'd forgotten it. He always used the speed dial on his cell phone…

He ran to the living room to retrieve his cell phone from where he'd left it. His heart sank when he didn't see it at first--but then there it was, sunken halfway between the couch cushions. He grabbed it and pushed the button to dial Kirk's number.

Then he remembered: it was game night. Some friend he was, going home to watch TV instead of staying at school to watch his best friend's basketball game. But Kirk knew by now that basketball was never really something that interested Marvin.

Marvin held the phone to his ear, listening as it rang. What time was it? Was the game still going?

Kirk answered, and Marvin let out a breath of relief.

"Hey, Kirk."

"Hey, Marvin."

"What, um… What are you doin'?"

He heard other voices in the background, the other guys on the team, probably. They sounded upbeat. He hoped that meant the Falstaff team had won.

"Just about to leave. Too bad you didn't stick around. We won!"

Marvin smiled. "That's great."

"What's up? Everything okay?"

Marvin sighed. "Well, actually...if it's not too much trouble, I was wondering...would you mind coming over? To my house?"

"Sure. Be right over."

"Wait! Don't hang up yet. Where are you? Are you walking to your car?"

"Yeah, I'm almost there. Marvin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Well, _something_ , but...it's hard to explain…"

Marvin could hear the sound of Kirk's car door opening and shutting, of the engine being turned on.

"Want me to stay on the phone till I get to your house?"

The fact that Kirk would even offer to do that made Marvin roll his eyes. Not at Kirk, but at himself, for being so needy.

"No," he said. "I mean, _yes_ , but…it's fine. Besides, you shouldn't talk on the phone and drive at the same time. "

"What if I turn the radio on?"

"Okay." That was a good compromise. At least then he'd feel like Kirk was still there, even if they couldn't hear each other. At least they could listen to the same music.

He heard the sound of Kirk's phone being set down on the passenger seat, followed by the radio blaring and intermittent bits of music and static as Kirk turned the tuning knob. Finally he settled on a station, and the opening chords of Hanson's "MMMBop" could be heard.

Marvin smiled. Kirk _would_ choose a song like that, wouldn't he?

He heard the click of a seatbelt, then gears being shifted, and the activating of his turn signal as Kirk carefully drove out of the school parking lot, checking traffic both ways as he did so. Marvin felt as though he were right there with him.

He went into the foyer and sat down on the bottom steps of the staircase, facing the front door and leaning sideways against the wallpaper, holding the phone to his ear with his eyes closed.


	2. Chapter 2

Kirk soon arrived at the curb in front of Marvin's house. Marvin had actually begun to drowse, as if in a trance by the sound of Kirk's car radio, but he snapped back to reality when the radio turned off and the last several minutes came rushing back. He heard Kirk exit the vehicle and shut the door behind him.

"I'm here."

"Come on in."

They hung up, and Marvin got up from where he'd been sitting and stood by the front door, waiting until he heard Kirk's footsteps on the porch before he unlocked and opened the door. He moved aside and let his best friend enter, shutting the door after him and locking it again.

"So what's the matter?"

Kirk was wearing a pair of breakaway pants and a windbreaker over his basketball uniform. He looked at Marvin with a slight frown of concern.

Marvin didn't answer at first, but just stood there, silently regarding his best friend, as if taking in the moment, to really let himself feel the gratitude he felt that Kirk had been willing and able to come over at a moment's notice.

Marvin moved in closer, and he and Kirk hugged each other.

Marvin was reluctant to let go.

"Dude," Kirk said. "You're like...shaking. What's wrong?"

Kirk broke the hug just so that he could take Marvin by the shoulder, squeezing it gently as he led him into the parlor and set the both of them down on the sofa there.

"Do you need anything?" Kirk asked. "A glass of water?"

Marvin smiled, mostly in exasperation at himself. It was funny to think of Kirk playing host to him as if he were at Kirk's house right now and not the other way around.

He shook his head no...though on second thought he  _ had _ eaten quite a few of those salted pretzels, and only now did he notice that they'd made him a little thirsty.

He told Kirk about hearing Abey's voice outside in the backyard.

"It's stupid, I know," Marvin said, feeling foolish about the whole thing now that he'd heard himself talk about it. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to come over…"

"No." Kirk shook his head. "I totally get it. At least...I think I do."

Kirk stared down at the floorboards, as if he were thinking, searching for the right words to say.

"It's like…you lost your grandfather, and then having Abey around to tell you what you needed to know about the magic...even though he wasn't a substitute for your human grandfather, you still sorta grew to depend on him for...I don't know, consistency I guess?"

"Yes!" Marvin said. "Exactly."

"And then he was gone, and the magic was gone too, your family heritage."

"And no explanation of what happened to it," Marvin added, "or why none of you guys remembered."

"But then hearing him call your name outside… Are you sure it was him?"

"Well, no. I can't really be sure unless I  _ see _ him. But...hey." An idea came to him. "You don't happen to have a flashlight, do you?"

It turned out he did, in the trunk of his car. He ran to get it while Marvin went to get his warm coat out of the closet, then the two boys went out to the backyard together.

Kirk flipped the switch and shone the flashlight up at the large tree. There was nothing there but a bunch of bare branches. Being that it was winter, there was no surer way to know that absolutely nothing and nobody was hiding up in that tree.

As for the wooded area that loomed beyond…

Marvin cleared his throat, then took a deep breath before calling out, "Abey!"

No answer. He called out again, "Abey!"

Kirk swept the flashlight high and low, left and right. Without venturing out into the woods, there wasn't much they could see from where they stood.

"Let's go back inside the house," Marvin said, eager to be where it was ostensibly safe and warm, not dark and cold.

"Let's say it  _ was _ Abey," Marvin said, pacing around the kitchen and gesticulating with his arms as he spoke. "Why didn't he stay? Where did he fly off to? Did he expect me to follow him?"

Kirk leaned against one of the kitchen counters, scratching his chin as he followed Marvin's train of thought.

"And if it  _ wasn't _ Abey?" Marvin said, stopping and standing in front of Kirk and looking him in the eye. "Then who would be impersonating his voice like that?"

Kirk nodded. "You think somebody's messing with you."

"Somebody's  _ been _ messing with me. Ever since the magic disappeared, maybe even before that."

Marvin focused his eyes on the toaster behind Kirk, lifting it a few inches off the countertop with his PK and then letting it drop with a slight 'clang' against the flat surface. Kirk moved away in startled surprise.

"Sorry," Marvin said. "I just like to check on my powers every once in a while, make sure they still work. Seems too good to be true that they do, considering everything else that's been taken away."

"Well then, at least you're not completely defenseless," Kirk said, "if it turns out something really is messing with you."

(Marvin couldn't help noticing that Kirk had said "something" instead of "somebody" this time; it seemed apt.)

"Yeah, unless my powers go away too, with no explanation. It could happen. Our necklaces supposedly wouldn't come off unless we took them off ourselves, and yet all of the necklaces besides mine are gone, and you guys don't even remember ever having them. Mine could be next. That's what I hate about all this. I hate knowing that anything can happen at any time, and I have no control over it."

The silence that followed stretched out to almost a full minute, then Kirk spoke up.

"You want me to spend the night?"

Marvin smiled. "How did you know that was exactly what I was thinking?"

Kirk's mouth formed into a half-smirk. "I don't know. Maybe it's because I want answers as bad as you do, and even if we don't get any tonight...well, you gotta figure, I've already had my memories taken away once, so they can't really be taken away  _ again _ , so at least with me around…" Kirk reached out for Marvin's shoulder and squeezed it. "...you'll know there's at least one thing in your life you can count on."

It was easy to believe that was true, with Kirk standing right there saying it, but part of Marvin remained cautious, like a deep-down voice warning him not to take anything for granted. Still, knowing that anything could happen tomorrow and that he had no control only made him want to cling to his best friend even tighter.

"You hungry?"

"Little bit, yeah," Kirk said.

"Want a grilled cheese sandwich?"

"That sounds good. Lemme call my parents real quick, let 'em know I'm spending the night. Your parents won't mind?"

"Of course not."


	3. Chapter 3

After they finished their grilled cheese sandwiches, Marvin wrote a quick note to his parents saying he’d be right back, and also that Kirk would be spending the night, and left it on the small table just inside the front door. He and Kirk got in the car and went around the corner to the video store, where they browsed for a while before choosing a comedy that neither of them had seen yet. Then on the way back they stopped at the grocery store for chips and dip and everything needed to make s’mores.

When they got back to the house, the lights were on upstairs, and the note was still where Marvin had left it, with the words, “Have fun!” written on the bottom of the paper in his mother’s handwriting. Marvin got a towel from the linen closet for Kirk so he could finally take a shower (which he normally would have done immediately after getting home from a game), and also lent him a t-shirt and a pair of flannel pants to sleep in. While Kirk was showering, Marvin dug out a couple sleeping bags from the basement and rolled them out on the living room floor. Then, after a moment’s thought, he dragged the large, flimsy mattress out of the fold-out sofa and spread it on the living room floor and placed the sleeping bags on top of it so they’d have at least some cushioning under them instead of just the hard wooden floor. (Using the mattress while it was still in the fold-out sofa was out of the question, as the metal bar that ran perpendicular across the bed frame would have made it impossible to sleep comfortably.)

Marvin changed into his pajamas, and on the way back downstairs, he passed his dad in the foyer, who’d just arrived home with a bag of Chinese takeout for himself and Marvin’s mom. He held out an arm to Marvin for a quick half-hug and peck on the temple, wishing him a good night and advising him and Kirk to keep it down and not stay up too late.

“We won’t, Dad.”

Returning to the living room, he felt momentarily tempted to get out some bedsheets and use them to pitch a tent in the living room and make it a true camping adventure. He smiled inwardly, shaking his head at his own thoughts.

Kirk came downstairs, freshly showered, dried off, and wearing the things Marvin had lent him. He nodded with approval when he saw the sleeping bags laid out on the mattress, with a big bowl of chips and the small tub of dip placed on the floor in front of them, and the tape already in the VCR. Marvin emerged from the kitchen with a couple cans of Pepsi.

He shut out the lights, and the two of them made themselves comfortable in front of the TV, sitting side by side on the wide mattress with the sleeping bags covering them up to their waists. They popped open the cans of soda, and Marvin pressed 'play' on the VCR remote.

They enjoyed the movie thoroughly, munching on chips and dip all the while, laughing together at all the funny parts, and Marvin forgot all about his troubles from earlier in the evening. When the movie was over he lit a fire in the fireplace so they could toast marshmallows and make s'mores.

Marvin and Kirk perched on opposite ends of the hearth, holding their skewered marshmallows over the small fire, enjoying each other's company in the room that was completely dark and silent apart from the crackling of the glowing flames. It was one of those moments when you wished you knew which words to use to tell someone how much they mean to you, as they both did, but of course there was no need, because they both already knew.

They pressed the toasted marshmallows between graham crackers and slabs of chocolate, and conversation started up again, about the movie they'd just watched, about the game earlier that day, about other games, about things happening at school and outside of school...about anything and everything.

It was late. Marvin kept the TV on, tuned to a station playing a rerun of some old sitcom. After they'd had their fill of s'mores, he lowered the volume a bit and lay back inside his sleeping bag. Kirk did the same, and with the smell of burnt wood still fresh in the room and the flickering images on the TV casting hypnotic shadows around them, the boys soon drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Marvin and Kirk made eggs and pancakes and sausage for breakfast, for themselves and for Marvin’s parents too. After they’d finished eating and had cleaned everything up, Kirk put on his shoes and jacket (still wearing the flannel pants and t-shirt Marvin had lent him because he had nothing else to wear besides his dirty basketball uniform) and he and Marvin went out back to investigate the wooded area behind the house in the light of day. It was cold and cloudy and just overall dreary outside, but at least it wasn’t pitch black nighttime anymore.

Dead leaves and twigs snapped and crunched beneath their feet as they ventured deeper and deeper into the wooded area, till soon the backyard and house could no longer be seen if they turned and looked behind them.

There was no wildlife to be seen, let alone any pigeons, which, Marvin knew, tended not to roost in forested areas anyway. Why would Abey ever be here?

Nothing made sense.

“You know,” Kirk said with a chuckle, “normally I would have suggested renting a horror movie for a sleepover...like that one about those people who go out into the woods with video cameras and end up getting lost...but considering the state of things last night…"

"Thank you," Marvin said, stepping carefully over a fallen log. "I appreciate that. And anyway, I've already seen that movie."

"Hey...remember how one of them got separated from the other two, and then they heard him calling out their names in the middle of the night, but they still could never find him?"

"Jeez, did you have to say that? Now I'm gonna be  _ really _ paranoid that something freaky is going on out here."

"How long do these woods go on for, anyway?"

"I don't know. Couple hundred yards, I guess? However far it is to the next neighborhood."

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about getting lost out here."

"At this point, I don't think I'd rule anything out." Marvin cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, "Abey!"

No answer.

"It's no use," he said. "Come on, let's head back."

* * *

Kirk had plans with his family that day, so he needed to get going. He had just started the motor and put on his seatbelt when he saw Marvin running to the car, holding the video cassette and waving it in the air. Kirk rolled the window down.

“I almost forgot,” Marvin said, “would you mind returning the video on your way home?”

“No problem,” he said, letting Marvin hand him the tape. “See you at school?”

“Monday morning, bright and early. Hey, Kirk?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. For everything.”

“Anytime, buddy.”

They exchanged smiles one last time before Kirk drove off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The search for answers will continue.
> 
> I love these guys. :)


	5. Epilogue

“ _ Heeeee _ -ELP! ...meeeee-EE!”

“Marie? Where are you?”

“ _ Nnnum _ ...ber nine?”

“I can hear you! Keep saying things! Let me follow your voice!”

Number Nine was running, faster, farther, deeper into the woods. Into these Pennsylvania woods that seemed to go on forever. At this rate, if he were to manage to find his way back out of them again, back to the nearest road or town, it would be a miracle. He’d completely lost track of where he was.

That wasn’t something he could afford to worry about at the moment. His sole focus was following the voice, Marie’s voice, or a copy of it anyway. The problem was that it kept jumping around, from the mouth of one creature to another. One moment it sounded closeby, then it would recede off into the distance, and then it would seem to be closer again, but off in a different direction. More than once he heard her voice directly overhead, and he’d stop to peer up at a passing flock, only to hear her in another direction yet again. Number Nine had lost count of how many times he’d tripped and fallen over some rock or log or shrub, or nearly run smack into the trunk of some tree, the way he kept having to swivel this way and that, changing directions every time he heard the voice from somewhere else, following his ears before giving his eyes adequate time to catch up.

Wherever Marie was--the real, human Marie--she obviously wasn’t having an easy time of projecting her consciousness into the body of one single bird. This sort of thing was her specialty, so she must have been in a fair amount of distress to prevent her from maintaining any semblance of focus.

A blue jay fell to the forest floor just a few feet away, flopping and writhing around, emitting the most unpleasant guttural sounds that gradually morphed into something vaguely resembling the voice of a human female, until it sounded unmistakably like Marie.

“M...Marvin?”

Number Nine knelt down in front of the poor, wretched animal. “No, Marie, it’s me.”

“Mmm...maaarrr…” The pitch of the voice changed until it sounded like a deep male voice. “...vvviiiin?”

Number Nine sighed. “Marvin’s not here. He’s far away from here.  _ I’m _ here to help you, though, but the only way I can do that is if you tell me where you are, or at least give me some sort of clue.”

The convulsions ceased, and the blue jay stood upright again. It peered at Number Nine curiously for a moment before taking flight above the trees of the forest like a normal bird again, as if what had happened mere seconds earlier hadn’t happened.

“Marvin!” This time the voice came from behind him, at the exact moment an acorn hit Number Nine in the back of the head. He let out a yelp, spinning around to see a squirrel up in a tree, chewing on another acorn.

“Mar. Vin.” It took a brief pause from chewing the tree nut just long enough to say a syllable, then resumed its chewing.

It sickened Number Nine to think of what might be happening to Marie at this very moment to make her behave this way. The way birds kept falling to the ground and flopping around every time she used one as a conduit, only to then get back up and fly away once her consciousness released its hold suggested that something was wrong, not with the birds but with her, or at least with her ability to control them. Was she under some spell? Was she being tormented? Not only was he having an impossible time getting her to communicate anything helpful to him, she didn’t even seem to know who he was, or possibly, who  _ she _ even was. The way she kept calling out for Marvin, and using the deeper voice to do so--the voice of Marvin’s grandfather--seemed to suggest that she’d mentally reverted to the way things were for those few months when she’d pretended to be a talking pigeon to Marvin.

Except that was just a ruse. She’d known she wasn’t really Abey. She’d been aware of who she really was.

Was she aware now?

Number Nine slowly stood up, holding his hands at his sides pleadingly. “Marie. Please. You have to give me something to go off of. Tell me what you see around you. Did someone tie you up? Are you indoors, outdoors? Where  _ are _ you?”

The squirrel scampered up the trunk of the tree and disappeared among the higher branches.

He didn’t hear Marie calling out anymore after that.

It was hopeless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End...for now.


End file.
